The absence of stars in Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) photos and video feeds comes down to camera exposure settings during broad daylight.
1. It Was Daytime on the Moon
Every Apollo landing—and all Lunar Rover EVAs (Apollos 15, 16, and 17)—took place during the lunar day. Even though the lunar sky appears pitch black because the Moon has no atmosphere to scatter light, the Sun was blazing in the sky. The bright white spacesuits, metal rover chassis, and light-gray lunar soil were reflecting intense sunlight.
2. Camera Exposure Limits (Dynamic Range)
Photographic film and digital sensors cannot simultaneously capture extremely bright sunlit subjects and extremely faint starlight in a single shot:
Daylight Settings: To capture a crisp image of an astronaut or the rover without making them a blinding white blur, the 70mm Hasselblad cameras were set to fast shutter speeds (e.g., 1/250s) and small apertures (f/8 or f/11).
Faint Starlight: Stars emit very little light relative to a sunlit object. At fast shutter speeds, starlight simply does not hit the film long enough to leave an impression.
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Imagine taking a picture of a friend standing directly under a brilliant stadium floodlight at night. If you adjust your phone camera so your friend's face is clearly visible, the faint stars in the sky behind the stadium won't show up in the photo.
If you force the camera to capture the faint stars, your friend's face will turn into a blinding white glare.
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Video from Moonpans.